The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of Survey on Participation of Residents in Cultural Activities conducted in the second quarter of 2014. This Survey aims to collect data on individuals aged 16 and above, regarding their participation in cultural activities such as going to cinema, visiting museum or World Heritage site, going to library, and attending performance and art exhibition, in the six months prior to the date of interview. Excluding those who participate in such activities due to work or learning. In the second quarter of 2014, a total of 284,000 individuals participated in cultural activities and the cultural activity participation rate (percentage of those participate in cultural activities to the population aged 16 and above) was 53.6%, down by 3.1 percentage points compared with the second quarter of 2013. Analysed by type of cultural activity, there were 173,000 individuals going to cinema, up by 6.2% year-on-year; those aged 25-34 increased by 23.1% to 73,000. As regards visiting museums or World Heritage sites, those visiting World Heritage sites decreased by 21.0% to 88,000 while those visiting museums increased by 19.7% to 81,000. Those attending performances totalled 110,000, up by 6.0% year-on-year. Those aged 55 and above had the highest average attendance of 3.5 per participant, and 72.0% of them attended theatre performances. Meanwhile, those aged 16-24 and 25-34 had lower average attendance, both at 2.1, with the majority attending music or dance performances, at 76.3% and 90.9% respectively. There were 40,000 individuals attending art exhibitions, down by 2.9% year-on-year; 95.6% of those attending art exhibitions also took part in other types of cultural activities, up by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year. Those going to libraries totalled 119,000, up by 2.1% year-on-year. The participation rate of students (64.5%) was higher than that of non-students (18.2%), with the difference between the two narrowing from 50.0 percentage points in the same quarter of 2013 to 46.3 percentage points.
